DESCRIPTION (Taken from the application abstract): With the current trend toward discharge of cardiac artery bypass graft (CABG) patients from the hospital after five days, nurses must make effective use of existing computer technology to provide more efficiently the services once available during the patient's lengthier hospital stay. The purpose of this project is to develop and test HeartCare, a computerized cardiac recovery program designed to assist nurses with the in-hospital discharge planning and teaching and post-hospital support for self-monitoring, motivation, and home management support that will assist patients to recover from cardiac bypass surgery. Capitalizing on the expansion in health resources on the Internet, this project will employ the World Wide Web platform in the generation of personalized in-home computerized access to recovery resources for use by post-surgical cardiac patients. The revised proposal for a 3-year project clarifies management and better specifies research procedures. One hundred and forty women and men who have undergone cardiac bypass graft surgery will receive standard post-operative care and then be randomized to receive HeartCare, a personalized access to the Internet information and communication resources, a comparison intervention (CHIP, which is an audiotape coaching program), or usual care (a control group). During an experimental patient's index hospitalization, a research nurse will conduct an information needs assessment and use it to tailor access to Internet-based cardiac recovery resources for the individual patient; the patient will take the HeartCare computer home and use it to access locally resident as well as Internet-based resources. Comparison group patients will receive a nursing visit and audio tape; control group patients will receive a data-collection only visit from the research nurse. Patients in the two intervention groups will be encouraged to use their respective services as often as desired in the post-hospital period. Patient outcomes to be measured include physical function, symptom distress, psychological distress, perceived family function, and adherence to cardiac risk behavior modification at four points in time: one week, one month, three months and six months post-discharge. Nurse outcomes of interest include a benchmark of the resources necessary to use HeartCare in practice and a forecast of practice effects of HeartCare obtained through interviews and group assessment techniques. Properly utilized, computer tools that personalize access to Internet resources can help extend key nursing services to patients and ensure that patients achieve their cardiac recovery goals.